China part four

Ok, back on the road again !! Been a long time off the bike, was very happy to be packed up and moving !! Here is the bike fully loaded and ready to roll. I did change out the tires to ones that were a bit knobbier. Will miss the great Tex Mex food and stawberry shakes in Chengdu but the open road calls.
And I know you guys are waiting to see what new punishment I will visit upon myself.....

Decided to head up north to catch up with Franki and test ride the new Jialing dual sport bike. However no visit to Chengdu would be complete without visiting the giant panda center. Paid my fee and start walking around looking for pandas out playing in natural settings.
It is midday, and this is what I see....

Hmm, no pandas in sight. Then see a small building with a sign in front that says due to the weather please see the pandas inside. And sure enough there they are, kicking back in air conditioned cages chomping down on bamboo.
Basically escaping the heat which makes perfect sense.

Here are some pint sized ones.

Another area had red pandas. They are fairly small about the size of a medium dog. Also clearly a lot tougher as they were out in the outside area playing around, and eating of course..

Here showing off the zoom on my new camera.

I must have a warped sense of humor, since I got a kick of a sign there warning Chinese tourists not to pester the foreign tourists for pictures.

A pretty uneventful ride up to Mianyang for the Jialing motorcycle event. I had no idea how big the city was. I had been given the name of the hotel from Franki, and thought no problem to find it. They knew otherwise, and had two people waiting for me to arrive at the outskirts of the city. Out of the corner of my eye saw these guys waving and screaming as I went by. So they escorted me WAY out of town to a resort where the event was held. The resort was on a lake. As I walked around the hotel area I noticed this cable car down to point of land across the lake. It was no longer in operation, think you would have to be a very brave person to take this...

I did not know a soul at the event except Franki whom I had never met in person before. We had only exchanged emails. Yet everyone there treated me like a long lost brother. I was truly amazed. They also took endless pictures of themselves with me like I was a motorcycle touring superstar. I did not have the heart to tell them I was just an ordinary bozo wasting my time riding around. And of course they spent lots of time spent examing the modifications I had done to my bike.

The whole event was very elaborate and well done. Here is the parking area after all the test riders came back from the day's ride.

Franki being interviewed by a film crew. He is a very well known rider in China.

Jialing is a major motorcycle manufacturer in China. They wish to enter the large bike market with this 600 CC dual sport bike. So they invited 60 riders from all over China to come on a three day road trip to test ride the bikes. With Franki's help I just sort of weaseled my way into the party.... Here are the test bikes lined up.

One of the bike clubs there. They forced me into their photo...:rofl

A few assorted non Chinese bikes were there as well.

And no bike gathering would be complete without a big nightime party. Let's see, beautiful dancing girls ?? Check !!

A stunning girl that was an excellent violin player?? Yep got that too....

And of course a guy wearing a mask blowing out gouts of flames.......

Franki is from Hong Kong, and speaks perfect english as well as Chinese of course. So he very graciously acted as my translator the whole three days.
Think he told everyone that I was famous, because everyone kept coming over to my table and wanted a toast. Or maybe it was because I was the only white foreign devil there. :evil
When you toast here you have to drink the whole glass at once. So by the end of the evening Beemer Boy was turning into Blasted Boy. Had a great time though.
Good food, good friends, and lots of motorcycle talk. A little piece of heaven!

Next day time for a test ride on that bad boy. As the bike is basically targeted for Europe they were very curious what I thought of the bike.
Notice the sort of evil grin that is saying what were these Jialing people thinking letting a maniac ride one of their prized new test bikes....

A stop along the way...

Rider viewpoint...

Overall I liked the bike. Plenty of power, actually better roll on power than my Africa Twin. Mild surging from the fuel injection was the main issue for me. Am sure that can be mapped out. Also a bit heavy for a 600 CC bike. But I think the bike will sell well.

Lunch stop. Basically I ate like a king the whole time. The point and shoot method of ordering food is on hold for a couple of days. Now I sit down, wait, and endless plates of delicious food keep showing up. Yeah baby !!!

Finished up the ride with a big party at the factory owned hotel named amazingly enough the Jialing Hotel. Shared a toast with the head guy of Jialing but did not get a chance to talk to him. This is Franki on the right with a fellow rider that wore green surfer shorts the whole time with knee pads over the top of them. I kept asking him if that was special Chinese safety gear. Looked pretty funny but with good knee pads probably was safe enough.

I want to add a special note of thanks to Franki who helped me endlessly with translations, adding to my enjoyment by being able to share humor both ways with these wild and crazy bikers. They may ride smaller bikes and speak Chinese, but they are just as wacky as we are !!! :clap
I also want to add in a belated note of thanks to Crazy Carl as well. He helped me a lot while I was in Chengdu, and was instrumental in enabling me to purchase a bike. Without him I would not be still touring around China right now. Thanks my friend........

The next day everyone left so time for me to scoot on down the road. Damn, have to start paying for my meals again.:cry Headed out in light rain, trying to find my way out of a very large confusing city. I have a GPS of course, but it does not help much in these cities, as it only gives a general direction to head on. Finally after some lucky turns I am on the way north to Xian. Some of the mountains along the way.

After a long days ride ended up in a medium sized town for the night. Stopped alongside the street and pulled out my Lonely Planet guide to try to find a hotel. I had a feeling they do not see many white people , because within ten minutes I had a crowd of a hundred people in a circle around me. I pantomimed for them to smile and took a shot of everyone as I was leaving. Yep, just start calling me Superstar !!!

The next day was a long ride to try to get to Xian. Attempted to make it to a small town just before twilight when the bike started to feel a bit squirrely. Checked the front tire and rear , everything seemed ok. Went a ways further and it got worse. Ok, time to stop the bike and really check things out. Hey!! Ten broken spokes on the rear wheel !!! :eek1 :eek1 :eek1 Remember this is on a bike that is ten days old, and only had only traveled on a paved road.

I think another few kilometers and the wheel would have collapsed. Am now at a really small town, basically a wide spot in the road. And now it is almost dark... And there is no place to stay... And no place to eat...It is another ten kilometers to a large town up the road. Time to work ! All the broken spokes were on the side opposite the sprocket. My first thought was to take some of the spokes from the sprocket side and transfer them over to the side with all the missing spokes. Then limp in very slowly to the large town up the road . Just as I am getting ready to work a man comes up and motions that there is a shop fifty meters up the road. So I walk the bike down there to find a closed shop. No problem, this is a small town. A phone call, and the mechanic shows up in five minutes. He then takes spokes that were too long and clips them shorter using a pair of side cutters.:eek1 .Not the toughest spokes in the world..... Here he is working away at night time.

He seemed to be well on the way to fixing it. Hate to hover over someones shoulder when they are working, so time to tour the little town... Here are some of the local kids who must have thought I was the greatest entertainment that ever showed up in this town.

Late at night did you ever wonder where dried mushrooms come from? Well, wonder no more, as it seemed to be the main product of this town. Here are some very nice ladies filling up giant bags with mushrooms. They were so happy to have their picture taken.

Finally after two hours of work the bike is done, with in essence a temporary fix to get me to the next town. I then asked how much for all the work. The answer? Fifteen yuan. About two US dollars.
Let's recap here. Before I was broken down in a tiny town and could not go on. The mechanic then shows up from home to fix it and get me rolling again. I tried to pay him fifty yuan but he refused. I was finally able to force him to take twenty yuan. I shook his hand, big smiles all around , and I am off.
Into pitch darkness, something you never want to do here unless you really have to. Hey, here is my chance to test out the new HID light I put in. It worked very well as you can see here. Had a feeling it was going to get some usage on this trip. So was able to slowly make my way to the next town and a good nights sleep.

The next morning went to a local shop in town that did a much better temp repair while I had my standard dumpling breakfast. So now off for the final leg into Xian, a distance of about 200 kilometers.
Sunny day, and a beautiful windy road through a canyon with a river running through it. The repair is holding up pretty well, but I can tell the wheel is WAY out of round. So off I go. First stop along the way is a bee production facility, meaning some boxes alongside the road......

No that is not dust on my lens.... The air is thick with bees !!!

Here honey is being extracted.

Here they are extracting royal jelly I think. I purchased a jar of it for 100 yuan.

Working away.

As I am watching them work through a cloud of bees I use hand gestures to indicate
I would like to come over and see what they are doing but am afraid of being stung to death....
They start laughing and wave me over. They were right , the bees seemed to have very little interest in me. Then I wanted to get a closer look at the boxes where the bees were really thick, so they gave me a bee keeper hat. Their faces really lit up with smiles when I put it on.

Of course after my free bee tour I had to buy some honey.

The send off by the bee people. We never exchanged any words, but had a lot of laughs.
I kept examining them for stings, never saw a single one.

The very pleasant road towards Xian.

The endless rolling green mountains.

Hey !! A granite factory !! Time for another one of my free self guided tours. Here the saw is cutting up huge granite boulders.

Close up.

Sliced up.

Polishing time. I went over to him, put my hand around his bicep, and then struck a muscle man pose
to indicate how strong he must be to work that machine every day. That got a smile from him.

Finished product. The manager was so pleased that I would take the time to photograph his operation
he wanted to give me a souvenir piece of granite. I had to politely decline , showing him by hand gestures that I was trying to travel light !!

Fellow bikers along the way at a small cute town having lunch. Think I am looking taller than usual.

His bike, which was styled a bit like the Jialing 600. It was a Suzuki 650.

Some more bikers that were hanging out in the stream next to the road. As soon as they saw me they waved me to come on down. Hot feet in a cool stream?? Sure !!!

The final really scenic road that drops down into Xian. Except I was not paying that much attention to the scenery as more of the temp spokes on my bike had broken, and now the wheel was really wobbling.
And there were huge drop offs next to the road, a really bad place to have a total wheel failure....

Finally reach Xian in the late afternoon. Wheel is way out of true so going pretty slow. No need to press my luck !! Next day off to the local bike shop. They send off to somewhere for spokes, and replace every spoke with larger ones. Hopefully the the wheel will not be an issue in the future. First pull the offending wheel off.

Then the new spokes are put in. Now time to true it up. Let's see , no trueing stand in sight....Hey no problem, just use the edge of a stool as a reference.....Came out perfect. Ready to roll onto the next adventure.

Hi Robert,
Amazingly 2 weeks ago i made a real effort to contact the Company about Importing the Jialing JH600 to Thailand. After No email Reply i rang Numbers till i got put from Person to Person and spoke English to someone who gave me the Details of a Man in Bangkok who was their Agent. So i got Long to ring him, He didn't Know Shit also hadn't seen a JH600 orknow anything about it??? Rang Back to China, Sorry he is our agent so i must Talk to Him??? If they wanht to sell Internationaly it might be a Good Start to get Better Reps, or at least someone who shows an Interest??? So my question to you, Can you Help me with any Contact Details of Anyone from Jialing that i can get in touch with about this Bike. If they want i will be Their Thailand Agent, I Don't have to do anything to be an Improvement on their Present one and if the Price is Right i Bet i can even sell them!!! ( I would try one myself anyway so one Sold!!! ) Keep Going Mate and the Best of Luck!!!
Cheers Ian.

My brother Mark decided I was having too much fun in China, so he flew into Xian last week. He then bought the same bike I have, pretty much doing it the same way by putting it in the name of a local person. Now time to pay up !!

The next day we are riding around together when his bike dies in a busy round about. There is 16 kilometers on the clock.....By the side of the road we start to diagnose it. Turns out whoever connected the positive terminal to the battery had it next to the hold down clamp. Instant short after a bit of vibration. Think this error was done at the dealer.

New battery and new regulator and the bike is fine again. Mark is still a bit suspicious of its long term reliabity however....Here he is supposed to look angry at the bike but a smile popped out anyway.

The next day off to the terra cota soldiers. It was quite impressive in its uniqueness. Here is a variety of shots. This is the main pit with the most soldiers.

A bit closer.

Row at the front.

A lot of them are missing heads.

Close up. Every face is different, and was modeled from a live soldier at the time.

Here Mark wanted photographic proof for his friends that he was there....

Ones that had a tougher life waiting in the pits for 2000 years. Some of the roofs over them had collapsed.

A chromed spear. All the metal battle gear taken from the warriors was in perfect condition. The organic bows did not make it however.

The reason why.

Mark chilling with a soldier.

Horses for the soldiers?? No problem, got those too..

Inside the main museum there are some display items behind glass. This is one of two scale models showing some horses pulling a chariot. It is just about half scale. All the terra cota soldiers were full size, in fact slightly larger than the standard warrior of the time. This was to show strength, that they were the best of the best.

On the way to see the soldiers had an odd incident happen. Two lane road with light traffic. About a 1.5 meter wide road shoulder with a painted line to divide it from the highway. I am riding along at maybe 50 kilometers per hour
just inside the painted line off the highway. Suddenly a small compact car zooms on past me, cuts over to the shoulder right in front of me, and then brakes hard to a stop in the middle of the shoulder. WTF ??? There is no road to turn off onto, or reason for him to stop like that. I jam the brakes and come to a stop inches from him, as close to a crash as I want to come. It is exactly like he was trying to take me down. Yes, it is now time for ROAD RAGE ......I walked my bike forward to his window, and told him in english using short words what I thought of his driving. He kept saying sorry, sorry.
He has his window rolled part way down. I finished my diatribe, and then smacked the side of his car with my flat hand to show I was done.....
He then yells something back in Chinese. I take off down the road while he sits there. He then motors off , and as he is passing me veers in close to scare me. Guess he does not know me very well.... Using arm gestures I invite him to come back where we can finish the discussion but he apparently declines. One of the worst bits of driving I have ever seen. Maybe I need anger management classes ??

The next day we are packed up and ready to head north towards the desert. As I am checking out of the hotel I find out they are charging me for the water in the room. The bottles had the tag on of them of " With compliments". Big discussion at the front desk, and the manager was called over. I showed them in my dictionary that the word meant free. She looked very dissappointed and stuck it off my bill. Not a lot of money, but just seemed odd to me. All good hotels give free water in the room as the tap water is not drinkable. This was a three star hotel by the way.

Standard departure picture.

We are about fours hours traveling out of the city. It is a two lane country road with mild farm activity. I am riding in front, and the road is making a slow bend to the left. The is a house at the end of the curve, completely blocking the entry road next to it. Next thing I know this blue farm truck pops out behind the house and is right in my lane. I only had about one second to lock the brakes to try to take some speed off before I hit him.

I was knocked out for a few seconds. Woke up in pain, and could hear the engine of my bike screaming at high rpm as it was laying on its side. My brother came up a few seconds later and turned the bike off. I was too stunned to get up , and just laid there in the road. Finally checked everything in my body which seemed fine except for some major knee pain, then got up and hobbled to the side of the road. Traffic was blocked in both directions so pretty soon there is a huge crowd gathered to carefully watch the injured foreigner.

They would not move the bike, as they were waiting for the police to show up to analyse the accident scene and determine who was at fault and have to pay. It looked sad lying there with oil pouring out of it.

Here I am standing on the road where he came out of . I would have been traveling the the same direction as the red buses. He just came out of nowhere from behind the house, never even slowing down as he came to the main road.

You can see the skid marks where I tried to slow before impact.

Hmmm my leg feels a bit wet inside. Ok, that is expained by lots of blood running down it. I was wearing First Gear mesh pants with padded knees. Did not stop my knee from being punctured, think I will wear armor in the future....

Tried to use pressure bandages to stop it but could not. Made for a dramatic sight while I was negotiating with the policeman and farmer for damages.

The policemen who showed up after about a hour and a half had no problem in determining who was at fault. Let the bargaining begin !!!!! He asked me with sign language how much money I wanted from the farmer for damages. In China this is settled on the spot if both parties are agreeable. If not they impound both vehicles for a week while they settle later. So there is a lot of pressure to complete matters quickly. I wrote down 3000 yuan . The farmer looked at it, started ranting in Chinese and then wrote down 1000 yuan. I laughed and walked away from such a miserable offer. The farmer looked worried now and offer 1900 yuan. It was getting so bizarre at this point, and my pain was increasing by the minute, so I agreed. And finally in the wierdest moment the policeman wants me to load my bike in the same truck that just smashed me so he can take me to the local small town. I looked at him in disbelief, then walked over and kicked the truck to show what I thought of it. The policeman smiled , and then loaded my injured bike into his police truck.

About a bouncy 30 minute ride to the hospital in the local small town in the back of the police truck. Finally arrive at the hospital and the wierdness really begins. They never even looked at my knee. They just slapped a bigger bandage over my original bandage to soak up some of the blood. No wheel chair or crutches or any attempt to help me move. At this point the shock has worn off and the pain is really setting in. I am fighting to keep from passing out, and covered in sweat. First stop, the antique x-ray machine. Two quick views and then wait for the development of the film. I can barely stand, and ask for a stretcher to lay down on. Nope, not available.......
Finally laid down on a row of plastic chairs before I pass out. Pretty soon there are eight people in white coats, taking turns looking at the x-ray and laughing at me. They performed no care whatsoever. I tried to take a picture of them laughing but they would run away as soon as I pulled my camera out. I asked them to wash the wound and dress it which they would not do. I truly believe that cattle in America would receive better care than I received. Then they started talking about stitches, this concerning a wound they have yet to look at. By the way this entire episode was conducted without them speaking a word of english......My friend Crazy Carl was conducting translation via mobile phone. I would have been in a world of hurt without him. Finally I had my fill, and limp out to the front area where the bike is in the back of the police truck. I take out my first aid kit and dress my wound myself. I handed my camera to Mark, who took this picture on the sly.
Notice the bloody old bandages, the doctor with his arms crossed doing nothing, and blue coated hospital workers smiling and watching in fasination as I sat there doing my own medical care. I think that China needs to stop building more high rise buildings in Shanghai to impress the world, and instead start reforming medical care in rural areas. You truly get the sense here that life is cheap, no need to spend too much effort to save it.

Finally pay my 8 dollar hospital bill and leave. We then arrange for a truck to take us and both bikes back to Xian. Here they are being loaded up.

Here in the back of the truck with a bit of Tramadol painkiller kicking in. I carry lots of pain pills just for events like this.

My knee is getting more swollen by the hour. Not a happy sight for me....

Finally reach Xian. Drop the bikes off at the same bike shop that worked on my rear wheel and head for the hospital. First stop the emergency room. They actually look at the knee. They then change the dressing to a gauze wrap. No antiseptic used,and the old dressing thrown on the stretcher next to me. Notice the brave smile, while inside am thinking I have entered the medical twilight zone....

Finally had to take a piss. Used a urinal in the bathroom, and notice that all my piss is now puddling at my feet as there is no pipe connecting the drain to the urinal.....This is a restroom next to the emergency room where they are conducting operations........

Here is Mark wheeling me around. My friend from the motorcycle shop was with up and helping a lot. So he was sort of directing us where to go. No hospital personal helped us at all moving around. Off to the x-ray dept, with a top notch machine. That made me feel a bit better. Then a long wait in the hallway....

Here is the x-ray shot through my hotel window. They keep saying no bones are broken, but it appears to me the knee cap is too high. They seemed amazed by the screws and staples in my knee from my long ago snowmobile accident. Any doctors reading this feel free to add your opinion !!

Finally they make me come into a small office with a stretcher on it and indicate they need to stitch up the knee. This makes sense as it is still bleeding profusely after 7 hours. Painkiller is never offered. Now I have seen the movies where the hero grits his teeth and had stitches done without painkiller... Ok, go ahead,I can take it.......The knee hurts like hell without touching it. As soon as the first stich goes in I start yelling for them to stop. They then inject a painkiller which hurts almost as much as the stitches....After a pretty professional sewing job they now indicate they want to drain the knee. Uhhhh errrr hmmmmmmm forget it !!! Had it done twenty years ago and it hurts like a mother. They continue to press their case for a knee draining, and using my handy phrase book indicate they will use a painkiller and it will not hurt at all. And also the knee will feel a lot better afterwards.....I reluctantly agree.
First a pretty painful pain shot. He waits 10 seconds and then jams a giant needle into the middle of my injured knee. I let out a huge scream. Forget the tough guy movie act. This REALLY hurt. Mark came in from outside to see what they were doing to me. Finally the torture is over with, and I head back to the hotel.
The next day I head back for the MRI. The doctor who held the x-ray in his hand showing hardware in inside the knee was the one who wanted an MRI done to look for soft tissue damage. When I got to the MRI dept. I informed them there was metal inside my knee. They were horrified and said that an MRI could not be done. They then took me up to the cat scan dept where they took a image with what looked like a brand new top of the line machine. They were not done until 5:30 in the afternoon so apparently there was no one there who could interpet the results. Was told to come back on Monday.
So now three days after the accident I still do not know what is wrong with my knee. Xian is a city of 6 million people and I still cannot get reasonable medical care...........I truly wish to continue onwards, especially if this is an injury that will heal itself. But since good medical care seems impossible to get, I think I have little choice but to fly back to Thailand where there is outstanding medical care.

Thanks David for the good wishes. While my injury is painful it could have been much worse, so am not too worried. I have a plane ticket to fly back to Thailand on Monday morning. It will take a week for them to fix the bike anyway, so I will use that time in Thailand to bring my health back to snuff. I have had three knee surgeries so I am a bit of a lay expert on knees. I am pretty sure all the main ligaments are fine. Just think the knee cap took a huge hit, and put a lot of fluid in my knee. Sure looked strange when it was all puffed up. .....
Then depending on the outlook for my knee am pretty sure I will return to finish the trip. I know how sad you guys would be if my wierd China trip came to an end. :rofl . This is truly a land of contrasts, physical as well as cultural. Every time some frustating event happens, and I am questioning my sanity in choosing to ride here, then I end up meeting some of most truly kind and helpful people I have ever interacted with. People for whom I am a complete stranger, and yet they choose to go way out of the way for me. When I try to offer money to pay for all this time they spend on my behalf, they laugh and push my hand back, saying I am a guest in their country. This is what makes me always go onward.

Enough about me, here is the damage to my poor almost new bike. The soft bags took a beating. Am sure that this is the last time Greg Frazier will be foolish enough to loan equipment to me.:lol3 :lol3

Cockeyed front end.

Ordered the repair parts yesterday. Guess I will have to put forks on the list :deal

Hmmm...it's kinda difficult to read film when there's the image of a roof top appearing in the x-ray![] OTOH, maybe you really have a rare case of 'shingles'...of the knee!![:0]
Actually it was not the best of films I've seen...as the lower portion of the patella is not properly exposed. Normally about 85% of the patella rests above the tibia, on a standing lateral x-ray. So, if in fact yours is higher(which I doubt), it's possible you may have a slight rupture of the patellar ligament...that's the one that connects to the inferior portion of the patella and to the tuberosity (bump) that is about 2-inches below it on your tibia.
But, likely...and hopefully..you managed to get a severe sprain of the knee ligaments, in addition to the lacerations...plus a mangled moto.

Get well soon...as myself and other armchair readers of your adventures are starting to experience withdrawals...

Now am hanging in Pattaya recuperating from the tribulations of China.
Have an appointment to see some high powered knee doctors tomorrow so should have a clearer idea of what I am facing as far as damage. If I am lucky, it is a minor tear that does not need any repair. If I am unlucky it will be a re-construction with months of no riding and crutches. In that case David and I will have to form a gimp sub chapter of the GT riders.........

Glad to hear you are back in one piece, albeit rather battered.
I am told by highly unreliable and disreputable sources that Pattaya has a reputation for looking after those Americans in need of rest & recuperation.
I hope it[they] won't detain you for too long as your remarkable journey has many people worldwide hooked and still wondering whether you'll make it to the Potalla or Pakistan!
Well done & welcome home.
If you need a gaff in BKK I'm just around the corner from the Bumrangrad - oh & NEP. Just give me a holla.

Hi Rieky, sorry about the knee, loved the trip report, mate thats adventure riding in the suberbs for you, an those blue trucks, can't trust'm. Speedy recovery to the knee an all parts south, did the fammily jewls cop a whack, that I'd give the China's a look in!!
Scott

I'm looking to buy a Qingqi or a Dayang this summer in China - doing something similar to your trip. I can't find local retail prices anywhere for these bikes. How much do they cost locally in China? Can you just give me a ballpark figure for a Qingqi 200 or a Dayang 200 new?

Also, do you know anything about taking these bikes out of China to say Vietnam?